Federal Plan for Renewable Energy Development in the California Desert on Trump's Cutting Board

"The Trump administration threatened Thursday to undo a hard-fought conservation plan to protect millions of acres of California’s Mojave Desert from industrial development," reports Carolyn Lochhead.

The plan in question is the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP). The Bureau of Land Management approved the land use element of the plan in 2016, after years of controversy between conflicting approaches to environmentalism. The plan mediates the need for renewable energy in a green economy, and the need to protect habitat for endangered species like the desert tortoise on the other hand. The article includes more details on the final version of the CRECP.

Now, "the federal Bureau of Land Management said it is considering re-examining the plan to comply with an executive order by President Trump last year to increase energy development on public lands," according to Lochhead.

The news about the potential changes to the DRECP brought a swift rebuke from U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein (D - CA). "Scrapping the plan now is a complete waste of time and money, and I oppose this," Feinstein said in a statement.